Phiangphak Sukkharak

Dr. Phiangphak Sukkharak completed her primary and secondary schools in Nan province. Later, she got the scholarship from the Development and Promotion of Science and Technology Talents project (DPST) to continue her high school at Yupparaj Wittayalai School in Chiang Mai province. She received her bachelor degree in Biology from Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, with second class honors. After that, she enrolled her Master degree in Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University. With the support from the Royal Thai Government Scholarship: the Office of the Higher Education Commission in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), she completed her doctoral degree in Biological Diversity and Ecology from University of Göttingen, Germany, with magna cum laude. After her graduation in 2011, she returned to Thailand and started her academic career at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Burapha University. She now holds position of Associate Professor of Botany.

Her research works focus on Taxonomy and Systematics of Bryophytes, especially Liverworts. It was started since she was bachelor degree student. She was interested in Bryophytes. She, therefore, submitted the research proposal to Biodiversity Research and Training program (BRT) and got the financial support to conduct the Bryophyte diversity study at Kun Wang community forest in Chiang Mai province. During her Ph.D. study, she received the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) grant to attend “The phylogenetic systematics and molecular dating” course in Copenhagen, Denmark and the grant from the Synthesis of Systematic Resources (SYNTHESYS) Project to study liveroworts kept in Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France. After her graduation, she recieved the Junior Research Fellowship of French Embassy in Thailand and the Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists 2016 from DAAD to conduct the researches at Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France and Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany, respectively. She has done the world wide revision of the liverworts genera Thysananthus and Mastigolejeunea and described two new species, several new combinations, and three new morphological characters. Another area of her research is the revision of the liverwort in Thailand, in which Frullania and Pleurozia has been completely studied and Metzgeria and Porella are revising.

She received several research awards, including the Young Scientist Award from Foundation for the Promotions of Science and Technology under the Patronage of His Majesty the King in 2015, the Researcher Award recognized by the Higher Education Commission in the 4th Higher Education Research Promotion Congress in 2016, the second place for having the highest number of publications of Burapha University in 2017, and Rattana Burapha Award (Research: Science and Technology) given by Burapha University in 2017.

Moreover, she presented her work at several conferences leading to the recognition of several best presentation awards including Tem Smitinand’s Young Botanist Outstanding Award: the best oral presentation from the Flora of Thailand in the 15th Flora of Thailand meeting in 2011, the best oral presentation from the 6th Botanical Conference of Thailand in 2012, the best poster presentation, theme 4: Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecology from the 12th Biological Sciences Graduate Congress in Malaysia in 2007, and the best poster presentation from the 2nd Higher Education Research Promotion Congress in 2014.